The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 287 new local COVID-19 infections, 170 backlogged local cases and six deaths.
Of the local infections, 138 are male and 149 are female, and the onset of symptoms or testing dates ranged from May 6 to Saturday, it said.
Most of the cases live in Taipei and New Taipei City: 142 in New Taipei City, including 32 in Banciao District (板橋), and 77 cases in Taipei, including 38 in Wanhua District (萬華), the center said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Twenty-three cases are from Taoyuan, eight each from Pingtung and Nantou counties, and the remainder are from 11 other municipalities, including Chiayi County and Chiayi City, which each had their first confirmed cases, it said.
Of the 170 backlogged cases, 84 are male and 86 are female, with the onset of symptoms or testing dates ranging from April 25 to Saturday, the CECC said.
Of those, 88 live in Taipei, including 48 in Wanhua, 73 live in New Taipei City, including 17 in Banciao, six live in Changhua County, and one each in Hsinchu City and Yilan and Yunlin counties, it said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Among the 457 cases reported yesterday, 161 had recently visited Wanhua, 160 are linked to previously reported clusters or have a clear infection source, 70 have an unclear connection to previous cases and 66 are being investigated, CECC data showed.
The dead are five men and one woman, aged between 50 and 90 years old, the center said.
They developed symptoms from May 10 to Thursday, were diagnosed with COVID-19 from May 17 to Saturday, and they died on Thursday or Friday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Five of them had a chronic illness, he added.
Due to a spike in demand for COVID-19 testing over the past week, the period between conducting a test and confirming an infection has surpassed two days, leading to tens of thousands of pending test results.
The center on Saturday for the first time reported 400 backlogged local cases, sparking debate on whether the practice is appropriate.
Chen said that the center has simplified the reporting procedure by reducing the 22 required items to only eight for each case.
Yesterday, he said that the center would also subsidize laboratories up to NT$5 million (US$178,955) for purchases of a high-throughput real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) instrument to speed up testing.
Test recipients can check their PCR test results by using the “My Health Bank” (健康存摺) function in the National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) mobile app (全民健保行動快易通), he said.
NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said a PCR test can take up to three days to produce results, and that the new service would enable hospitals and testing stations to upload the test results to the NHI MediCloud system.
Test recipients can check results as soon as they come out, rather than waiting to be informed through a telephone call, he said.
Chen said that although rapid testing is conducted only in some testing stations in the six special municipalities, mostly in Taipei and New Taipei City, the test positivity rates in the past week peaked at 5.8 percent on May 15, dropping to 2.1 percent on Wednesday, before rebounding to 3.4 percent yesterday.
The upcoming week is an important observation period for deciding whether the COVID-19 warning should remain at level 3, Chen said.
In addition to positivity rates, daily confirmed cases and distribution of cases, there are other indicators to be considered, he said.
Chen also said that the standards for home quarantine and home isolation have been relaxed to allow “one person per room,” instead of “one person per household,” to free up rooms at enhanced quarantine hotels and centralized quarantine facilities for confirmed cases with mild symptoms.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS